It’s Better to be a Loser

The Old Testament reading in church today was about King David’s sins: murder and adultery. In 2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15 we read about how David had killed a man named Uriah because he wanted Uriah’s wife for himself. The thing is, if you are familiar with the complete life story of King David you’ll know that he was actually a Godly man who loved and trusted in Him. We all make mistakes, don’t we?

After the death of Uriah, Kind David married his widow and together they had a son. Nathan, a prophet during this time (approximately 1000 BC), was sent by God to speak to King David about his sins. Nathan says in chapter 12:

“There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, ³ but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

⁴ “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

⁵ David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! ⁶ He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! …You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own.”

¹³ Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. ¹⁴ But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.” ¹⁵ After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. ¹⁸ On the seventh day the child died.

I don’t know about you, but after reading this passage I felt pretty horrible.

Taking the Whole Word to the Whole World

For the last three years I have been listening to the late Dr. McGee on Thru the Bible (ttb.org). Dr. McGee leads folks on what he calls the “Bible bus,” a five-year ride that journeys through every verse of scripture, beginning at Genesis 1 and coming its final stop at Revelation 21. I grabbed a seat on the Bible bus along the middle of the road, when Dr. McGee was explaining the life and trials of King David in the book of Kings.

Today is a big day for me.

My Statement of Faith

In 2014 I felt a strong calling to write for Christ. I posted regularly for a year, a time frame that I felt committed to. It wasn’t on purpose, but when that year was up I no longer felt the need to write on a faithful, weekly routine. It’s been months since my last post on Naked I Will Depart and I must say, it feels good to be writing again.

During my time away my husband has been busy working on a possible change in jobs and therefore, a potential relocation of our family (to our hometown of Tucson, AZ). I’ve been busy dreaming about prospective homes.

A move back to Tucson would mean settling down, something I’m very ready and happy to do. It also means that I would be able to put my secondary education degree into action, becoming a teacher or perhaps in some other fashion working with young adults. The realization of this decade-old dream may soon be realized!

With that in mind, I’ve recently applied for a position with a private, Christian school in Tucson. One of the requests on the application was for me to make a statement expressing my Christian faith and who Jesus is to me. I realized that I’ve never written specifically about my personal faith and I felt that my response would be a good topic for a Naked I Will Depart post. The following was my reply.

Jeju Island – South Korea (Part Four)

Part Four: (Click here for Part One, Part Two or Part Three)

The next morning I woke early again to watch the sunrise from the beach. Little did I know that the very spot where we had camped was the exact same spot that tourist buses take their guests to watch the sun rise from behind Sunrise Peak. As I set up my tripod, and Roxy sniffed around the black lava beach sand (amazing by the way), I realized that hordes of photography tourists where piling in all around me. On one hand I was thrilled that we had inadvertently camped on the most perfect of all spots to be for a photographic opportunity, but on the other I hoped that everyone would be quiet enough to keep my family from waking up. Roxy wasn’t sure what all the black blobs emerging from the distance were and, being that she’s only five months old, did what any inexperienced dog would do. Sat next to me and softly growled. The growl was soft enough not to alarm, but loud enough to be heard, and to my delight, kept an invisible bubble all around me so that I was then free to photograph as I wished. Good dog.

Jeju Island – South Korea (Part Three)

Part Three: (Click here for Part One or here for Part Two)

I woke the next morning just before the sunrise, grabbed my camera and tripod, and walked 10 feet to the shoreline. Roxy, our puppy, danced around me and the two of us breathed in the fresh morning air.As the day wore on, sand castles were built, and Coronas were kicked back, I grabbed my camera again to photograph the beauty all around me. Yet again I marveled at the lava rocks that had once flowed from a mountain at the center of this island.

Jeju Island – South Korea (Part Two)

Part Two: (If you missed the first portion of this story, please click here.)

A good amount of time went by in a highly tense rental car before I received another text from our Korean angel.

The ferry company noticed ur depart time doesnt change. It will 1600 as well. Depart from Jeju ones were changed. Sorry for confusing.

I wrote back how thankful we were for her updates, which she did out of the goodness of her heart and told her I’d like to buy her lunch when we I returned. I also mentioned changing our departure date and asked how we could do this, if at all.

If you want to change the arrival date, pla let me know. They said it has to be canceled and re-booked. If I cancel and book on Saturday, you can print out in the port. Plz let know. Be careful ur driving!!

With her help, we changed our tickets to Saturday via text message and I once again sat back in my seat, allowing myself to relax. Sort of. There was still the matter of crossing the ocean over swirling seas. I thought about the pool floaties that were deflated, folded up, and packed into my backpack. If the boat went down and there weren’t enough life vests, my family would be floating in the middle of the ocean on those babies. I allowed my mind imagine my husband punching any grown adult in the face who so much as tried to take away my kid’s floatie.

Jeju Island – South Korea (Part One)

Note: My original intention was to publish the entire Jeju post at once, but after watching my husband’s eyes glass over after the first 1,000 words I took his suggestion and have broken it up into parts. The majority of my photos are included in the latter parts of this story and so, if you are interested in seeing them, I’m sorry, you’ll have to check back here for Part Two tomorrow. Remember, I’m doing this for your own sanity.

Part One:

My family and I haven’t been on a vacation in about two years. Sure, we’ve PCS’d to Korea, but taking time off to pack a house and ship it overseas with 30 days notice is not what I consider to be a vacation.

Jeju-do, the “do” means “island” in Korean, is considered to be Korea’s very own Hawaii. Advertisements to take a vacation to this island paradise are constantly placed in front of our faces at Camp Humphreys, from the library check out stand to the back of the bathroom doors at the local swimming pool. After nine months of drooling over this tropical carrot I finally succumbed.

“Honey, I want to take the family on a camping trip to Jeju.”

Proverbs: Part 19

My 17th wedding anniversary came and went without the person I’ve spent the last 17 years married to. Yet again, our family has taken a blow from the Army, and in a place that just might hurt the most: the heart.

Proverbs: Part 18

I’m tired, sweaty and cranky.

This week has been crazy; I’ve been getting up early, working on my feet for hours, and enduring high heat and humidity with no central air in my Korean home (it doesn’t exist) and no A/C in my car (it doesn’t work). The sweat puddles on the seat of my Galloper as I drive from my muggy home to Vacation Bible School (VBS). I open all four windows, desperate for the breeze that blows thru them when I exceed 30 mph. Each day that I arrive to our local elementary school I endure the thirty long seconds that it takes for the old and wore out window motors to roll back up their windows. I watch them rise like paint drying on a wall, sitting there in my sweat soaked seat, the air stifling. As hot as those three minutes are, the walk from my truck to the VBS entrance doors is almost excruciating. Like a lost person in a desert who sees a mirage of water but can’t move any faster toward it for sheer lack of energy, I so desperately look forward to that super cold blast of A/C waiting for me only 100 yards away but can’t muster the strength to move my legs any faster towards it.

Proverbs: Part 17

A few years ago I did a stupid thing. I learned from my huge mistake, and in the process was drawn closer to God, but at the same time I lost one of my two best friends.